Lightning and unusually heavy rain kill dozens in Pakistan

April 16, 2024
[caption id="attachment_6715" align="alignleft" width="1024"]With more rain expected in the coming days, Pakistani authorities have also warned of landslides and flash floods With more rain expected in the coming days, Pakistani authorities have also warned of landslides and flash floods[/caption] Days of abnormally severe rains have pummelling Pakistan's southwest, resulting in at least 39 fatalities. Authorities said that some of the dead were farmers who were struck by lightning while harvesting wheat. Internet images depict large areas of cropland covered in rains. Transportation networks and electrical supply have also been affected by flash floods. As Pakistan struggles with the effects of climate change, there has been a rise in extreme weather events. Unprecedented flooding in 2022 totally engulfed a third of the nation, killing over 1,700 and hurting many more. For months afterward, millions of people were without a place to live and clean drinking water. Some of the areas affected by the 2022 floods, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, are being impacted again by the recent storms. With more rain expected in the coming days, Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority has also warned of landslides and flash floods. Pakistan's most populated province Punjab has suffered the highest death toll so far, with 21 people killed by lightning between Friday and Sunday, AFP news agency reported. At least eight were killed in the westernmost Balochistan province according to AFP, where authorities have declared a state of emergency. Schools in the province were ordered to shut on Monday and Tuesday. Extensive areas of Pasni, a Baloch coastal town, have been covered by rainwater. "Pasni looks like a big lake at the moment as flash floods entered the human settlements and main commercial areas," Noor Ahmed Kalmati, chairman of the town's municipal committee, told Pakistan newspaper Dawn. Heavy flooding has also been reported in neighbouring Afghanistan. At least 33 people have been killed and hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed, Afghan authorities said on Sunday. Scientists have said that global warming is likely to have played a role in the devastating floods that hit Pakistan in 2022. Pakistan is also ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the UN's Global Climate Risk Index.

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